Friday, November 23, 2007

the morning did not start well with frequent heavy showers on a cold NW wind on the patch; by 09:45 I thought about giving up but did a quick check of the Humber in case of wildfowl or Little Auks; driving into the car park a superb first-winter Glaucous Gull flew over and headed east; stopping in the middle of the car park I jumped out and watched it turn back towards me; camera out of the boot in a flash but unfortunately it flew right over my head rather than to the north where it would have been lit by the sun; never mind a good bird and the first one on the patch for several years

Thursday, November 22, 2007

checking the local pits today I came across this drake Smew--it must be last winter's bird as it was feeding in exactly the same spot in a small channel where you never actually see anything as a rule; it caught a huge fish which seemed far too big for it to swallow but down it went

Sunday, November 11, 2007

I always look forward to a November gale for the chance of seeing Little Auks but this movement seems to have left a lot of birds in poor condition; on the Lincs coast birds were going north then south, dropping on the sea and getting swamped by huge breakers; good seawatching for birders is often bad news for the seabirds. I liked this image as it puts the distinctly small size of the birds into perspective against the breaking wave

the mix of rain showers, rain, showers, sun, blowing sand and wind made for some interesting beach vistas; it also saw my tripod burying its head in the wet sand and that does not now sound very good !

one of several flocks of Starlings in off the sea today; also a number of Blackbirds came in but one very unfortunate bird was snaffled by a Great Black Back just 40m from the beach having flown the North Sea in a gale and rain it died just 100m short of safety; a single Short-eared Owl also drifted in late afternoon